


safe right here in my arms

by towokuwusatsuwu



Category: Kamen Rider Gaim
Genre: Adopted Children, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Father-Son Relationship, Happy Ending, M/M, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-13
Updated: 2017-08-13
Packaged: 2018-12-14 21:21:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11791710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/towokuwusatsuwu/pseuds/towokuwusatsuwu
Summary: Takatora never thought he and Ryoma would be able to have a child. So they adopt Kouta, and then Mitsuzane comes along just the same.





	safe right here in my arms

Kouta is with them for eleven months and three days when Mitsuzane is born. Takatora would know this even if Ryoma did not consistently remind him of this nearly every day, one hand cradling the lower curve of his stomach, the other smoothing Kouta’s flyaway hair back out of his face. It was unexpected, to say the least. They had so much trouble conceiving that it only made sense to adopt… And then Ryoma had gotten pregnant just over two months later.

Takatora supposes it makes sense. Their lives have never been simple, and situations such as this arise far more regularly then he would like to think about. They had wanted a child, and now they were blessed with two. That was all he had the energy to care about right now.

If he had any say in the matter, Kouta would be at home, tucked into bed and awaiting Minato to come pick him up and bring him to the hospital in the morning and preferably after breakfast. But as soon as Ryoma told Kouta that it was time for him to go to the hospital, Kouta had clung to his hand and refused to release it, pressing himself against his father’s leg and half-hiding behind him every time Takatora tried to separate the two of them. Five minutes had proven to be the limit for Ryoma’s patience; he had told Takatora to put Kouta in his booster seat, that they would figure out what to do at the hospital, that if Kouta wanted to come, he was allowed to.

“You have to be quiet on the ride,” Takatora had murmured to Kouta as he buckled him in, making sure those big brown eyes are trained on him, that Kouta picks up the subtle command in his voice. “Otouchan has to concentrate, and to do that, we both have to be quiet.”

To his surprise, Kouta is quiet on the ride, contenting himself with one of his many toys strewn across the backseat, humming a song Takatora vaguely recognizes to himself. This gives Takatora the concentration necessary to focus on his driving, on Ryoma, who takes slow deep breaths in his seat, his eyes closed, his hands folded carefully over his stomach. They had worked so hard for this moment only to find it handed to them when they thought it long lost.

“Otousan?” Kouta asks at a red light, and Takatora turns around in his seat to see Kouta looking down at the toy in his lap, noting the distress evident on his young face. “Is Otouchan going to be okay?” He sounds so forlorn in that moment that Takatora’s chest seizes, and it takes all of his self-control not to crawl into the backseat to hold Kouta close.

“He’s going to be just fine,” he says, reaching back to squeeze Kouta’s knee, relaxing when Kouta looks up at him with an uncertain smile. “The doctors are going to take good care of him.”

The words are enough to appease Kouta for the rest of the trip, and when Ryoma has been checked in and tucked into bed, Takatora picks Kouta up and holds him close, standing at the window so they can see Zawame spread out in front of them. He had only come here for work. He had never dreamed this city would be where he started his family.

“I’m tired,” Kouta tells him, laying his head against Takatora’s shoulder.

“You’re supposed to be taking a nap right now.” Takatora rests his cheek against Kouta’s hair, letting his own eyes fall closed. “It’ll take a while for the baby to get here. You can rest.”

Ryoma loudly clears his throat behind them. “Bring him here. He can stay with me while he naps.”

Immediately, Kouta twists around, making determined grabby hands for Ryoma.

“Okay, shh, calm down.” Takatora waits until Kouta calms down before setting him at Ryoma’s side, tucking the blanket around him as well. “You be good and quiet for me, okay?”

Kouta nods, snuggling up under Ryoma’s arm, and Takatora has to bite down hard on a noise that rises up in the back of his throat. “Otouchan, is the baby kicking?”

“He is. He must know it’s almost time now.” Ryoma takes Kouta’s little hand, placing it on his stomach. “Right here is where he’s kicking. Are you excited to be a big brother?”

“Yes! I get to hold him, right?” Kouta looks up at Takatora with a pleading expression, and Takatora smiles fondly as he sits beside the bed. “I’ll be careful not to drop him.”

“Of course you get to hold him. You’ve been taking care of your otouchan and helping as much as you can.” Takatora can’t help a chuckle when Kouta makes a delighted sound, almost bouncing on the mattress. “Now get some rest, you said you were tired. We won’t let you sleep through the baby being born, I promised you that much.”

Within minutes, Kouta drops off to sleep, Ryoma’s arm wrapped protectively around his shoulders, fingers soothing through his hair. Takatora leans back in his chair, taking in the picturesque scene, wanting to remember every detail of Ryoma’s warm, gentle smile.

“Stop looking at me like that,” Ryoma teases him. “What are you thinking about right now?”

“You told me when we first broached the topic of trying to have a child that you weren’t sure you would be a good parent, and yet…” Takatora trails off, his eyes following Ryoma’s fingers as they sift through Kouta’s hair. “And yet you’re perfect at it, as you are at everything else.”

Ryoma scoffs at him, but Takatora doesn’t miss the hint of pink in his cheeks. “We’ll see how we handle two, then. Kouta is easy, he’s already so smart and agreeable. A baby is different.”

Takatora knows this. He knows that they were beyond lucky to find Kouta when they did, because he remembers long conversations with Minato on the phone as she struggled to reach Kaito through the haze of pain and abuse that seemed to cling to him like a second skin, a past unwilling to let him go and let him realize he was in a happy home with two women who would give the world to make him happy. But when he sees Ryoma wrapped so protectively around their son, when he sees the warmth and love in Ryoma’s eyes… He has hope for the best.

After a couple of hours, Kouta wakes up, and Takatora convinces him to come to the cafeteria with him to get something to eat. It takes some work, because Kouta has somehow made himself believe that they have to stay with Ryoma every spare minute, as if something may go wrong.

“When is my brother coming?” Kouta demands between shoving orange segments into his mouth, grabbing Takatora’s sleeve and pulling on it intently. “It’s been a long time already and he still isn’t here. You said he was coming today.”

“It’s going to take time, Kouta. I told you this. He will be here today, maybe not until tonight, maybe even tomorrow morning. Things like this take time,” Takatora says, watching Kouta’s face carefully, trying to deduce what his child must think of this situation.

Kouta heaves a sigh but nods, kicking his feet back and forth as he picks up another orange segment. “Okay,” he says, and that’s the last of it. He focuses back on his food and Takatora is probably more relieved than he has any right to be today.

Hours pass before Takatora and Ryoma are informed that the time has come, and despite the fact the sky outside is black, Kouta is wide awake and sitting upright in his chair.

“Are you sure you want him in here for this?” Takatora asks, letting Ryoma take his hand.

“He wants to be here, so he’s here.” Ryoma grits his teeth. “He’s okay, Takatora.”

A glance in Kouta’s direction reveals him looking troubled but otherwise okay. “Kouta?”

“I’m okay.” Kouta pulls his little knees against his chest and smiles. “Help otouchan!”

By the time Mitsuzane finally makes his way into the world— wide-eyed and gasping, not screaming, not crying— Takatora thinks he might have narrowly escaped his hand being broken. He still sweeps Ryoma’s hair out of his face and kisses him on the temple with a soft “Well done.”

Once his job is complete, Takatora retrieves Kouta, taking him immediately to Ryoma’s side without having to be told. Kouta snuggles back down beside Ryoma, where he napped earlier today, and lets Ryoma kiss him and cuddle him and tell him what a brave little boy he was for being in the room for this. Takatora watches them fondly, his chest aching over this scene.

When the nurses have weighed him and checked him and cleaned him up, Mitsuzane is wrapped in a blanket and placed in Ryoma’s waiting arms, and Kouta immediately scrambles up to look down at his little brother. He’s so small that Takatora’s breath catches in his lungs and he finds himself staring, not sure what to say, what to think at the sight of him. In contrast, Ryoma beams and covers Mitsuzane’s face with kisses, whispering to him how beautiful he is.

“He’s little,” Kouta says, and Takatora chokes out a laugh around the lump in his throat, shaking his head at his oldest son. He watches as Kouta moves up to his knees, leaning over Ryoma carefully, determined not to hurt him, peeking down at the little face that looks up at him from the blanket, before smiling brightly down at him. “Hi, Micchi! I’m your nii-san, Kouta!”

“You’re going to have to help us take care of him, you know. He’s very small but he needs a lot of love and attention, and he needs to be protected because he can’t protect himself.” Ryoma says all of this without his breath catching, without tearing up. He’s stronger than Takatora will ever be.

“I will!” Kouta leans in closer and Mitsuzane stretches up a tiny hand to touch his fast, and Takatora can’t hold the tears back anymore. “I’m going to protect you. I promise.”

Takatora turns away to wipe the tears from his eyes, trying to steel himself, trying to get some of his usual composure back. It’s hard when everything he ever wanted and even didn’t know he wanted is laid out before him, peaceful and loving and more beautiful than he ever thought possible.

“You have to sit down and wait for otousan to help you if you want to hold Mitsuzane,” Ryoma says, and this is Takatora’s cue to turn back around, help Kouta get settled in before reaching for the tiny, delicate bundle Ryoma offers him. “Anata, say hi to him before Kouta holds him.”

“Of course.” Takatora gives himself a moment, Mitsuzane warm and safe in his arms, and looks down at his tiny face, and he swears he can already see hints of Ryoma here and there, and that makes his heart full, overflow with affection for this tiny child they worked so hard to bring into this world. “You really are a beauty, aren’t you? Well worth the wait.”

“Otousan,” Kouta whines, and Ryoma laughs, wrapping his arms around their pouting oldest.

“Of course, of course.” Takatora kisses Mitsuzane on the forehead. “I have to hand you off to your nii-san now, he’s been waiting to see you for so long now.”

Kouta beams up at him, nodding frantically. “And now he’s here and I wanna hold him.”

Ryoma has shown Kouta how to hold a baby a thousand times now, at least, so when Takatora sets Mitsuzane in his arms, Kouta automatically knows how to hold him, how to support his head. Mitsuzane makes a small noise up at him and reaches his tiny hand up once more to touch Kouta’s cheek, and Kouta giggles, turning his head to kiss Mitsuzane’s tiny fingers.

Takatora takes a deep breath, taking in the scene before him, in his beautiful husband and their beautiful children, and for the first time in far too long, he feels complete.


End file.
